Notes Along the Road, May 2013

(c) Norman Sperling, May 25, 2013

Since the April 19th crash and replacing the wrecked rig with a 24-foot Class C RV.

Finally left Virginia on May 2. Saw the huge roadcut at Sideling Hill, Maryland, but didn’t take any samples. Saw the 200-year-old Casselman River Bridge, in far western Maryland, but couldn’t walk on it because it was closed for repairs. It’s a lot bigger than I expected. The RV drives wonderfully. Overnight in Jefferson, Pa.

May 3: saw astronaut John Glenn’s boyhood home, guided by “his mother”, an outstanding impersonation by a local actress. Also saw the neat museum of the National Road, which grew into US-40 and then into I-70. That’s another multi-museum, together with mementos of Zane Grey and local pottery. Also saw the Longaberger building, a basket case.

May 4: Unloaded sales goods uneventfully near Detroit. In Auburn, Indiana, I examined many of the most gorgeous cars ever built. Lots of Duesenbergs, Cords, and Auburns, with many others. I think the design factor I sought was “overload”: duesys have more splendid details than a person can notice at first glance, or second look. Overdoing things somewhat like rococo did.

May 7: Cairo, Illinois, is decaying badly. Visited New Madrid, Missouri, the center of the enormous 1811 earthquakes. Also some decay but a lot of neat things too. Their museum has the earthquake story but there’s nothing original to see: the old townsite is now under the river. I guess that’s why travel books ignore it.

Drove on till dusk, staying at a nice state park that Arkansas kindly built just where I got tired.

May 8: about 50 miles east of Oklahoma City. Oklahoma is my 21st state on this foray. A squall line sparks very gaudy lightning displays. Big hail is reported elsewhere but not here.

May 9: All the pipelines that go through Cushing, Oklahoma, run underground. They only emerge to connect with storage tanks. The guards are very fidgety about terrorists.

May 11: Marsh’s signs around Amarillo aren’t so much “funny” as “droll”, at least the ones I spotted. But the Ozymandias legs really are funny, with their fake-historic plaque.